The County Court dismissed a serious injury application under s 93(4)(d) of the Transport Accident Act 1986, finding that the plaintiff failed to establish on the balance of probabilities that the 2018 motor vehicle accident caused an aggravation of his left knee osteoarthritis, given the absence of contemporaneous complaints until January 2019 and the treating GP's own expressed doubts about causation. While the Court accepted the accident caused an aggravation of pre-existing cervical and lumbar spondylosis, it found the consequences of that spinal aggravation were significant and marked but did not reach the threshold of 'at least very considerable,' particularly where the plaintiff returned to his pre-accident work hours for approximately three years post-accident and the medical evidence did not adequately explain his subsequent decline. The case illustrates the importance of contemporaneous medical records in causation disputes and the need for expert opinions to be based on accurate histories, especially regarding the timing of symptom onset and pre-accident functional capacity.
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